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LaGuardia Airport is a S***hole

post #1 of 28
8/4/10 at 7:35am
Thread Starter 
Pardon the swearing, but seriously! I haven't been fortunate to travel much in my 22 years of life, so I'm not really well versed in the standards of travel throughout the world, let alone the US, but I had to pick up my mother and sister last night at NY's LaGuardia Airport, and WOW! It's depressing, it really is. I would think that NYC, what with being one of the world's most major cities, would have something a little nicer, but jeez. And yes, I'm aware JFK is supposed to be nicer, but still, it was a shocking low that I wasn't prepared for. And to top it off, their Duty Free, which I was anticipating greatly, blows.
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post #2 of 28
8/4/10 at 7:46am
Yep, it's always been like that. Plus the never-fail backed up air traffic. I used to hate LGA. I fell in love with JetBlue at JFK and I always flew them domestically ever afterward whenever possible.
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post #3 of 28
8/4/10 at 7:58am
Ditto LAX in Los Angeles . Waiting for your plane is like waiting for death - so boring really.Lots of candy ,drinks, magazine with hiked prices.Most of the duty free is BEFORE you check in ( Tom Bradley Terminal ). The security guy laughed and told me that if i want to buy duty free perfume I'll have to leave by going under the barrier ,buy and then go through security again so they can take it all away ............
I found two places for duty free perfume once I was through security - but nothing compared to other airports I have been to.
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post #4 of 28
8/4/10 at 8:08am
Has anyone ever been to the Detroit aiport? They have a really cool spa there and I love that light show thing in the tunnel!
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post #5 of 28
8/4/10 at 9:26am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Klute View Post

Has anyone ever been to the Detroit aiport? They have a really cool spa there and I love that light show thing in the tunnel!

Chicago O'Hare has a really cool tunnel light show, too.

LAX is the single worst airport I've been to.

KCI feels like something from the 1930s.

Denver Intl - I'm tooting my own horn here, but it's the nicest airport I know of. I've heard Phoenix Sky Harbor is really nice, but I've only had a short layover there.

Most unexpectedly nice airport was in Lima, Peru. Great duty frees, fast (enough) customs, clean. Only problem is they charge like $100 to leave the country. WTF?
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post #6 of 28
8/6/10 at 12:23am
Never flew into JFK. Always saved the $30-$50 and flew into LaGuardia........from Midway!!!!! :P
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post #7 of 28
8/6/10 at 12:22pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LiveJazz View Post


Denver Intl - I'm tooting my own horn here, but it's the nicest airport I know of. I've heard Phoenix Sky Harbor is really nice, but

Reminds me of this


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post #8 of 28
8/6/10 at 1:41pm
^ lol, apparently he hasn't been to O'Hare (Lord, that place is mindboggling) or LAX (there are like 15 freaking terminals with no way between them but to traverse the perimeter of the place). DIA is pretty massive, but at least there's a train from terminal to terminal and bountiful moving walkways. I think most of its reputation stems from the fact that it sits on about 52 square miles of land, most of it unused.
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post #9 of 28
8/6/10 at 4:51pm
Gosh, I recall the days of wonderful International airports. Like the old Idlewild terminal designed by Saarinen. It was really an incredible experience.


I think a lot of the big airports are suffering from the elaborate terror-controls. So much is off limits to non passengers.

I think the single worst airport experiences I have had were in Milan, New Orleans, and Mexico City.

And London Heathrow terminals 4 and 5 are raging, pain-in-the-$$$ **it-holes right now, with the 'rennovation' construction going on. Unless you like deplaning 100 yards from a shuttle, in freezing weather, after a thirteen hour flight, in the middle of a runway, only to be herded through labyrinthine tarp-covered construction corridors, to a post-apocalyptic-looking, warehouse-esque, make-shift customs check point from HELL. (My rant is over.) Fly to Gattwick.

My favorite-to-navigate airports are in Amsterdam and Frankfurt. So easy.

And Denver is indeed nice.
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post #10 of 28
8/6/10 at 4:55pm
On the other hand, one of the worst cities in the country (Detroit) has one of the best airports..
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post #11 of 28
8/6/10 at 5:15pm
Just got in from Denver, and yes, the DIA is quite nice. Felt like "mooing" though in the security queue. Got a "pass" on the full body scanner because I couldn't raise my arms high enough (I bet that reason/excuse will be seen in many airports in the coming days)... But yes, I believe that the security issues have made flying MUCH more inconvenient than ever... though I wonder is it worth it? Maybe.

Flew through JFK back about ... 30 yrs. ago and though the architecture was interesting it wasn't equipped for the sheer human volume.

I believe that the "halcyon days" of air travel may well be over.

(EDIT: I do have to say though that the monitors in DIA are illogically placed... you can only see departures from the gates and have to walk to the central areas to see the arrivals. My companion was arriving at the gate next to mine but I had to walk to the center to see which gate. AND he just called to say he's going to get on the EXACT SAME PLANE I just took from Denver to OKC ... should it get there in time ... from Austin TX. (and he may end up spending the night at the Austin airport!) He's not enamored with air-travel as he travels maybe 40 weeks a year, so he would agree, airports are S***holes.)
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post #12 of 28
8/6/10 at 5:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hillaire View Post

Gosh, I recall the days of wonderful International airports. Like the old Idlewild terminal designed by Saarinen. It was really an incredible experience.


I think a lot of the big airports are suffering from the elaborate terror-controls. So much is off limits to non passengers.

I think the single worst airport experiences I have had were in Milan, New Orleans, and Mexico City.

And London Heathrow terminals 4 and 5 are raging, pain-in-the-$$$ **it-holes right now, with the 'rennovation' construction going on. Unless you like deplaning 100 yards from a shuttle, in freezing weather, after a thirteen hour flight, in the middle of a runway, only to be herded through labyrinthine tarp-covered construction corridors, to a post-apocalyptic-looking, warehouse-esque, make-shift customs check point from HELL. (My rant is over.) Fly to Gattwick.

My favorite-to-navigate airports are in Amsterdam and Frankfurt. So easy.

And Denver is indeed nice.

Yikes- re. Heathrow , Hillaire. I always fly via terminal 3 . Terminal 5 I have used once- it was a bit stressful to say the least.
Chicago's O'Hare has to be the dreariest airport I have ever flown in and out of.
LAX is stressful and boring .

Now the BEST EVER is Changi Airport in Singapore. I tell you, it's one rip roaring good time from shopping to great exercise facilities, hotels, lounges,restaurants.. I even had oxygen therapy there once, when I was flying back to Chicago and I was tired as hell . It was the best refresher I ever experienced at an airport. My red eyes were gone in 15 minutes. ( I did feel like Micheal Jackson though ! )
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post #13 of 28
8/6/10 at 5:28pm
Ah MG... I always fly into Burbank instead of LAX... if possible. Characterful, small, and probably not long for this world. Sigh.
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post #14 of 28
8/6/10 at 7:12pm
The Minneapolis airport really sucks. The only thing that could make it worse would be Republican senators trying to pick you up in the toilets there. . .
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post #15 of 28
8/6/10 at 7:13pm
As if there were anything wrong with that. LOL.
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post #16 of 28
8/6/10 at 7:17pm
Well maybe if they weren't such disgusting old trolls. . .
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post #17 of 28
8/6/10 at 7:26pm
MCG there IS that. (icky)
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post #18 of 28
8/6/10 at 7:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by actiasluna View Post

MCG there IS that. (icky)

HAHAHAHAHA!!

I am also a non-fan of the Miami airport. Avoid at alll cost.
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post #19 of 28
8/7/10 at 6:04am
I've flown to a lot of airports. But all this and no love for Dallas/Ft. Worth? I'll take my westbound connection on American Airlines through DFW over O'Hare any day. Though I used to live in the Chicago area, and I still connect through there, so I'm used to the idiosyncrasies of O'Hare.

Other favorites of mine include Detroit's Delta terminal (a breeze to connect in), Minneapolis-St. Paul (there's a photo/observation gallery in the D concourse), John Wayne Airport in "the OC" (I'll take it over LAX anyday) and Paris/CDG (good duty-free shopping - especially perfume). Even here in Fort Wayne, Indiana, they have a nice small airport.

But I do hate other airports, too. My least favorite domestic airport is Kansas City. Want a drink, or gotta go? You have to exit and reclear security. Fine for people arriving or departing from Kansas City, but a hassle otherwise. Runner-up is LAX. A former LAX director once said that "we are an airport, not a shopping mall", boasting that LAX had the least dining/shopping of any major US airport. He may be long gone, but LAX still looks that way today. Internationally, I would pick London-Heathrow for the many reasons mentioned earlier. Oh, and non-working loos (Britspeak for bathroom).
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post #20 of 28
8/7/10 at 8:08am
I love duty free shopping at Heathrow's Terminal 3- perks me up every time.
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post #21 of 28
8/7/10 at 8:37am
I fly pretty much every week for work - and have been doing it for many years. I don't really think any airport is great - some are just more tolerable than others. But from all of my experiences, Paris CDG is my least favorite airport.
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post #22 of 28
8/7/10 at 8:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by petruccijc View Post

I fly pretty much every week for work - and have been doing it for many years. I don't really think any airport is great - some are just more tolerable than others. But from all of my experiences, Paris CDG is my least favorite airport.

Joe , Charles de Gaulle is a very confusing airport . I didn't enjoy my experience there either. Plus the cab driver rippped me off on the fare into Paris and drove like a maniac.
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post #23 of 28
8/7/10 at 11:23am
Plus one for Denver Airport. Very nice indeed.
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post #24 of 28
8/7/10 at 2:02pm
Oslo Gardemoen and Singapore are both very nice in my experience. Milan Linate is atrocious in every way - cramped, dirty and inefficient. I'd heartily recommend Milan as a city to anyone but go via Malpenza. If the airline industry needed an enema, Linate is where they would put the tube.
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post #25 of 28
8/8/10 at 7:33am
Of course, LaGuardia is no treat, but have you ever noticed the eerie similarity between its groovy, modern control tower and Guerlain's gold decanters? Inverted cone, with round holes decorating the sides. Separated at birth?
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post #26 of 28
8/15/10 at 3:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by petruccijc View Post

I fly pretty much every week for work - and have been doing it for many years. I don't really think any airport is great - some are just more tolerable than others. But from all of my experiences, Paris CDG is my least favorite airport.

Mine too. Abysmal shopping, a really crappy and insanely expensive reatsuarant (at least at the terminal where i was) I could hardly believe this was actually an international airport!!

Torino is pretty bad, too. They're known to constantly lose luggage, which happened to me. Nobody had any information on what to do. Total chaos. I actually had to drive back one and a half hours two days later to get it.
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post #27 of 28
8/15/10 at 7:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrcologneguy View Post

Of course, LaGuardia is no treat, but have you ever noticed the eerie similarity between its groovy, modern control tower and Guerlain's gold decanters? Inverted cone, with round holes decorating the sides. Separated at birth?

It's funny you mention this, because as we were leaving the airport, my father (a born and bred New Yorker) mentioned how he always thought that tower looked cool.
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post #28 of 28
8/31/10 at 5:48am
Here is an article on best and worst US airports:

http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-35116807
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